In current society, many people are struggling with obesity.

In many countries all over the world today, there are many people who are extremely overweight. This essay will firstly discuss the main reasons that this is happening and secondly look at the effects this is having on individuals and society. Firstly, obesity is caused by many factors in modern society, including the easy availability of unhealthy food. When a bad diet is matched with a sedentary lifestyle, weight gain is inevitable. Since eating large portions of food that is mainly processed high in salt, sugar and filled with chemicals, the body gains weight fast. For example, a documentary by Channel4 in 2016 showed that the most obese populations were situated in underdeveloped nations like Venezuela, where people admitted to finding it difficult to eat a balanced and healthy diet and had no nutritional education. Secondly, the effect that immense weight gain can have on a person is that they will likely develop health issues like diabetes or heart disease. As the body becomes larger, the metabolism slows down so that the body is more likely to get a chronic illness. This is impacting on health services around the world as hospitals are seeing an increased demand to care for obese patients. For instance, The NHS in the UK has admitted to spending around 16 billion per year on obese related diseases like diabetes. UK newspaper The Telegraph reported in 2016 that more money is spent on treating obesity in the UK than on staffing the police force and fire service. In conclusion, obesity is being caused by easily available calorie-rich processed food and little exercise. The effects of this are impacting individuals’ health as well as the cost of national healthcare services. In order for obesity to be lessened, individuals should be educated about nutrition. Furthermore, the governments should implement higher taxes on all junk food and sugar.